Surface Laptop 2 release date rumours

The Surface Laptop has been quite a hit since its surprise release in May 2017 at an education conference the company held.

Will Microsoft refresh the Surface Laptop in 2018?

In May 2018, there was no mention of a new Surface Laptop at the firm’s annual developer conference, Build, so it seems somewhat unlikely that we’ll see a Surface Laptop 2 any time soon. But let’s not forget: Microsoft is a secretive company and doesn’t ‘leak’ information ahead of a product’s release.

Not that long ago – in February 2018 – it quietly added a more affordable Surface Laptop to the existing range. The new model, available only in the US and only in the Platinum colour, has a Core m3 processor and with the current discount costs just US$699 from the Microsoft Store.

It’s a shame for everyone else that this ‘cheap’ Surface Laptop isn’t available as the Core i5 and Core i7 models are much more expensive: not everyone needs that much power in an ultraportable.

But all models use 7th generation Intel Core chips which is why, a year on from the original launch, there’s plenty of speculation that there could be a refresh with the latest 8th gen CPUs.

When is the Surface Laptop 2 release date?

Right now there is nothing to suggest Microsoft will launch a Surface Laptop 2. Many firms work on an annual update cycle, but not Microsoft.

It has been clear in the past that it will release new models only when there is a significant benefit for users. That means it doesn’t stick the new processor in the old model and put it on sale like some laptop manufacturers.

Microsoft prefers to wait until it can offer updates in all the key areas: performance, battery life, storage and more.

It’s one reason why the 2017 Surface Pro wasn’t called the ‘Surface Pro 5’, although its launch does somewhat contradict the ‘significant benefits’ argument.

How much will the Surface Laptop 2 cost?

Given the lack of any hard information, there’s not a great deal of point in speculating about the price of a Surface Laptop 2.

However, bear in mind that Microsoft recently announced it had earned only 1% more in the run up to Christmas 2017 than in 2016, which probably isn’t the number it had hoped for.

So it might want to introduce a cheaper model to make it more attractive to more laptop buyers and help it make more money from its whole Surface range.

Still, we expect similar prices (if not slightly higher) to the existing Surface Laptop models if and when a second-gen version appears.

What specs will the Surface Laptop 2 have?

Again, there are very few rumours to go on. But that doesn’t stop us using some educated guesswork…

It doesn’t take a huge leap to put together an expected list of updates in the Surface Pro 2. If it does launch before the end of the year, it should adopt the newer 8th-gen Intel processors.

We don’t expect the RAM or storage levels to change, although the SSD could be quicker than before.

We’ve heard rumours that Microsoft might offer the next Surface Laptop in two sizes, much like the Surface Book 2. It’s hard to say what those could be, since the current model has a 13.5in display and we think it’s unlikely a smaller version will be introduced.

That means we could see a 15in version. With the ability to shrink the screen bezels to just a few millimetres these days, such a display could be shoehorned into a chassis quite a bit smaller than a standard 15.6in laptop.

We’d like to see a USB-C port added, potentially in place of the proprietary Surface Connect port, which does a similar job.